Crunchy Granola

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Well, we're on a healthier jag this week. Instead of dessert, yesterday I baked granola. I'm a granola girl. I love to have a jar of the crunchy, munchy stuff around. It's great with a bowl of yogurt in the afternoon and milk in the morning -- and a handful before bed with a glass of milk. Yum. You can see it helps me get my dairy in.

And while I only eat the kind that I make (too many chemicals in store-bought), I haven't been making it lately. My regular recipe calls for quite a bit of honey, and with the quantity of granola that we can go through, that gets expensive. So I hunted for a new recipe and found one. It's much more economical and I think I actually like it better. It's much lower in fat, yet the texture is even crunchier -- usually more fat is needed, but not with this recipe. I think the egg white is the key. I found this recipe on a website which listed is as originating in The Times-Picayne. I only altered it to add the coconut, sunflower seeds and raisins; and I used quick oats, which worked out just fine.

Brown Sugar Granola

3 cups oats
1 c. coconut
1 t. cinnamon
½ t. baking powder
½ t. salt
½ cup brown sugar
½ t. vanilla
¼ cup canola oil
2 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, combine oats, coconut, cinnamon,
baking powder, salt and sugar.
In a separate bowl, whip vanilla, oil and egg whites with a fork.
Stir wet mixture into dry mixture and combine well.

Spread evenly on a jelly roll pan.
Bake for 30 minutes, or longer, until well browned,
stirring every ten minutes.

Let cool completely, then break up with a spatula.
Store in an airtight container.

Variation: I added sunflower seeds and raisins after baking,
while it was still hot.

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